The use of self-service transaction machines to obtain cash after bank hours, purchase airline tickets, check into or out of a hotel room, and the like has grown dramatically in recent years. It also has been learned in recent years that a certain segment or percentage of the population exhibits a high degree of resistance to using self-service transaction machines. Each of these persons has their own individual reasons for insisting on dealing with a human teller, reservation agent, or hotel clerk but, in some cases, it is also likely that the instruction provided for the operation of a self-service transaction machine do not effectively show a prospective user how to use the machine. The known technique of displaying instruction text on a cathode ray tube adjacent to function keys may not always effectively guide a prospective user. The difficulty in communicating with a prospective user is increased by special circumstances such as a user who wears glasses, a user who lacks knowledge of specialized terms used in the transaction, and so forth. As a result a user may be intimidated by the large number of keys and switches and apertures to be actuated. The prior art includes an automatic banking machine which includes a video camera and microphone connection between a user of the self-service terminal and an assistance operator located at a central office. Through these video and audio communications between the assist operator and the user, the assist operator can assist the user through step-by-step personal guidance to acquaint the user with the required transaction procedure. This solution to the user guidance problem is expensive in that video cameras and audio connections must be installed into the teller machine or in the immediate vicinity, and a human operator must remain on duty for the system to be effective. It is also human nature to dislike being corrected by another person, who in order to help must know what the user has entered or failed to enter.
Graphic pictures of an ID card or cash have also been affixed to the console of a transaction machine to guide a user. Such static graphics do not indicate when the pictured item is to be provided or taken by the user. Graphic pictures of these same items when displayed on a CRT screen at the proper time do indicate when the action is to take place but not where and how and their display is often slow unless special hardware is provided. Such guidance often becomes interfering in the sense that it is not fast and accurate and so tends to frustrate those prospective users who have a high degree of skill and knowledge in the use of such transaction machines.